* Quick start
+** Installation
+
+$ ./configure
+$ sudo make install
+
** Transparent file encryption utility
EasyPG provides transparent file encryption utility similar to
-crypt++, alpaca.el, hedgehog. To try this feature, add the following
-line to your ~/.emacs and C-x C-f ~/test.txt.gpg.
+crypt++, alpaca.el, hedgehog. To try this, add the following line to
+your ~/.emacs and C-x C-f ~/test.txt.gpg.
(require 'epg-file)
There are many competitors of EasyPG such as Mailcrypt, Gnus/PGG,
gpg.el, etc. EasyPG has some advantages over them.
-** EasyPG avoides potential security flaws of Emacs.
+** EasyPG avoides potential security flaws of Emacs
-*** `call-process-region' writes data in region to temporary files.
+*** `call-process-region' writes data in region to temporary files
`call-process-region' writes data in region to temporary files.
-Gnus/PGG and gpg.el use `call-process-region' to communicate with a
-gpg subprocess. Your passphrases may leak to the filesystem!
+EasyPG do _not_ use `call-process-region' to communicate with a gpg
+subprocess.
-*** There is no way to clear strings safely.
+*** `(fillarray string 0)' is not enough to clear passphrases
If Emacs crashed and dumps core, passphrase strings in memory are also
dumped within the core file. `read-passwd' function clears passphrase
strings by `(fillarray string 0)'. However, Emacs performs compaction
in gc_sweep phase. If GC happens before `fillarray', passphrase
-strings may be moved elsewhere in memory. It is recommended that as
-soon as you are done with passphrase you should clear it manually.
-However, Gnus/PGG and gpg.el can keep passphrase strings in cache for
-a while.
+strings may be moved elsewhere in memory.
+
+Fortunately, there is gpg-agent to cache passphrases in more secure
+way, so EasyPG dares _not_ to cache passphrase. Elisp programs can
+set `epg-context-passphrase-callback' to cache user's passphrases.
** GnuPG features are directly accessible from Emacs
projects / elisp / epg.git / blobdiff